Jessica Hausner

Jessica Hausner, director and screenwriter, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1972. Raised by a family of artists – her father, Rudolf Hausner, and her sister, Xenia Hausner, are painters –, she chose cinema as her career when she began to study at the Filmakademie in Vienna. In 1999, with directors Antonin Svoboda and Barbara Albert and director of photography Martin Gschlacht, she founded the production company coop99, responsible for producing several films by the founders and other emerging Austrian filmmakers. Before that, Hausner had already directed her first short film, Flora (1995), followed by a feature, Inter-view (1999). However, her following film, Lovely Rita (2001) would be the one to bring her international recognition, being displayed at the Cannes festival that year, in the “Un Certain Regard” section. Her next movie, Hotel (2004), also at the French festival, confirmed the attention her work was beginning to spark. In 2006, Hausner was invited to make the introduction trailer for that year’s edition of the Diagonale film festival, in Graz, Austria. In the same year, she completed her short film Toast. It took five years for Hausner to present a new feature work, but the waiting period did not wane the acknowledgement. Lourdes (2009) was selected for the Venice Festival competition and won the FIPRESCI award, among other awards in other film festivals. Another five-year hiatus followed, at the end of which came Amour Fou (2014), again selected for “Un Certain Regard” in Cannes. It was the opening movie at the Viennale and won the Best Film Award at the 2014 edition of the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival.